02-08-2002 (Paris) Measuring the Impact of ICT Use in Education
As ICTs are increasingly used in education in the Asia and the Pacific region, indicators to monitor their impact and to demonstrate accountability to funding sources and the public are increasingly needed. To look at these issues, UNESCO is now preparing a workshop to be held from 28 to 30 August 2002 in Metro Manila, Philippines.
01-08-2002 Belarus, UNESCO Agree on Cooperation for Information for All and Document Preservation
- The development of national information policies and the preservation of the documentary heritage are two of the many areas, in which UNESCO and Belarus have agreed to work together in the future according to a recently signed Memorandum of Cooperation.
31-07-2002 UNESCO Sponsors World Computer Congress
- "Information technology for our times. Ideas, research and application in an inclusive world" is the title of the 17th World Computer Congress, which will be held in Montreal, Canada from 25 to 30 August 2002. The UNESCO sponsored event concentrates on computer security and on youth and ICTs.
30-07-2002 UNESCO Provides Technical Expertise and Advise on Media Legislation and Policy to Government of Bulgaria
- At the official request of the Prime Minister of Bulgaria and his Council of Ministers, UNESCO was invited to visit Bulgaria from 23 to 25 July 2002 and meet with him and assist the country with several media legislation and media policy issue reforms.
29-07-2002 Assessing the Potentials of ICTs to Support Poverty Reduction
- Twenty participants from four South Asian countries will meet in Bangalore, India this week to discuss the best ways to assess potential impacts of using ICTs to support poverty reduction efforts.
25-07-2002 First Community Multimedia Centres in Mozambique
- UNESCO is assisting Mozambique’s first two pilot telecentres - in Manhiça and Namaacha - to become fully-fledged multimedia centres with the addition of community radio that will enable them to extend their activities. The two centres funded mainly by the IDRC, with UNESCO, opened their doors in August 1999.
24-07-2002 Community Television for Fostering Cultural Diversity
- Media should give local communities the possibility to express themselves without being forced to "standardize their thoughts, songs, languages or any other form of expression" said the participants of the first Caribbean seminar on community television last week in San Pablo de Yao, in the remote Sierra Maestra mountains of Cuba.
23-07-2002 (Paris) e-Governance Profiles of 15 Countries Now Available
The "push" for public service reform has brought in its wake the pervasive harnessing of ICTs to achieve administrative and social goals. A key feature driving this reform is public pressure for increased accountability and value for money in public service operations. This is one of the findings of a study entitled "Country Profiles for e-Governance" that UNESCO now publishes online.
22-07-2002 (Paris) UNESCO Guidelines for Electronic Dissertations Published
The UNESCO Guide to Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs), a resource for graduate students who are writing theses or dissertations, for graduate faculty who want to mentor ETD authors, for graduate deans who want to initiate ETD programmes, and for IT administrators at universities is now online available in English and Spanish.
UNESCO Recruits Communication and Information Experts
- Four posts have recently been opened for recruitment at UNESCO's Communication and Information Sector. The vacancies announcement include the post of the Director of the Division for Freedom of Expression, Democracy and Peace at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris (France), the post of an Assistant Programme Specialist in the Communication Development Division, also in Paris, and the posts of Advisers for Communication and Information in Southern Africa at the UNESCO Harare Office (Zimbabwe) and in the Pacific at the UNESCO Apia Office (Samoa).
18-07-2002 UNESCO Launches Stakeholder Consultation on Handbook for Community Multimedia Centres
- UNESCO is currently consulting stakeholders in order to seek their views on a practical guide explaining how to set up and run community multimedia centres and other multimedia information service providers. The book will give an account of all the main components of this process, the basics of how to organise and manage day-to-day operations and will cover the most important issues that arise in sustaining their activities.
17-07-2002 (Bangkok) ICT for Education in Asia and the Pacific Website
A website for ICTs in Education in Asia and the Pacific Office has recently been launched by the UNESCO Bangkok . Originally intended as an information services for the Japan funded UNESCO project "ICT for Education in Asia and the Pacific", the website has evolved in a portal to information and resources, latest news, organizations, projects and discussions on various dimensions of ICT use in education.
16-07-2002 Community Television for Freedom of Expression and Cultural Diversity. A UNESCO Seminar in Cuba
- "Community Television: Freedom of Expression and Protection of Cultures" is the title of a seminar that opened yesterday at Television Serrana, in Sierra Maestra, Cuba. The 3-day event that is organized with UNESCO's assistance is intended to promote exchange of experiences among media producers, directors and specialists from the Caribbean. Its focus is on the potential of community television as an alternative in the media democratization process and the protection of cultural diversity.
15-07-2002 Training Workshop for Women Journalists Ended in Pakistan
26 women from Pakistan's District of Bahawalpur in Punjab participated recently in a journalism training workshop in the Government Girls High School in the city of Ahmed Pur Sharqia. The training course, which was organized from 27 to 29 June 2002 by the Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) and UNESCO, was financed with a contribution from UNESCO's International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC). Ehsan Ahmed Seha, PPF local Coordinator for the workshop, reports for WebWorld from Pakistan.
12-07-2002 (Paris) Multimedia Training Kit for ICT for Development
- Community multimedia centres, information service providers and community radio stations are the focus of a new training initiative by UNESCO. The Organization has launched a collaborative process to produce a multimedia training kit involving key stakeholders in the field of information and communication for development. The comprehensive suite of interactive, multimedia learning modules will cover organizational, management, content production and issue-based training.
11-07-2002 New UNESCO Web Service for Asia and the Pacific
- A web based "UNESCO Knowledge Hub for Asia-Pacific" was recently launched by UNESCO's Regional Bureau for Communication and Information in New Delhi. It provides information on activities of UNESCO and its partners in the region. "This website offers a practical expression of UNESCO's firm commitment to the building of knowledge societies" said UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura when launching the site.
10-07-2002 Archival Solidarity Project Launched by International Council on Archives
- The Section of Professional Associations of the International Council on Archives (ICA/SAP), a longstanding partner of UNESCO, has launched the Archival Solidarity project. Its aim is to co-ordinate efforts in the international archives community to carry out international assistance projects to develop tools and expertise for developing communities and communities in transition.
09-07-2002 UNESCO's WSIS Contribution to Include Communication and IT Research
- Work in progress for reports on communication and IT research will be presented at a Forum on Communication, IT Research and the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS), organized by UNESCO and the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR), in Barcelona on 23 - 25 July 2002. The research reports will form part of UNESCO's substantive contribution to WSIS.
Global Strategy for the Information Society Takes Successful First Steps
- The first Preparatory Committee Meeting (PrepCom 1) of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) completed its work today with broad agreement that the stakeholders must coordinate and consolidate their efforts to ensure that information and communication technologies (ICTs) benefit all the inhabitants of the world.
05-07-2002 WSIS Must Recognize Crucial Role of Archives in Information Society
- The World Summit on the Information Society must recognize the essential role of archives and records management in the development of a global information society and the preservation of its memory. This is the essence of a Recommendation adopted by archivists from all regions in the world who met end of May in Beijing, China, on invitation of the International Council on Archives (ICA) and UNESCO to discuss the concerns of world archival community vis-à-vis the Summit.
03-07-2002 (Paris) Preserving Documentary Heritage in Latin America and the Caribbean
- Luis Bunuel's film "Los Olvidados", the collections of the Jesuits held by the National Archives of Chile and the Archives of Franciso Miranda at the National Academy of History of Venezuela were amongst the collections that were proposed to be included in UNESCO's Memory of the World Register during the second meeting of the Regional Committee for Latin America and the Caribbean of the Memory of the World Programme last week in Quito, Ecuador.
02-07-2002 World Summit on the Information Society Preparatory Meeting Started in Geneva
- The first Preparatory Committee Meeting (PrepCom 1) of the World Summit on the Information Society opened at the Geneva International Conference Centre (CICG) yesterday. More than 600 delegates representing governments, international agencies, businessand civil society are attending the meeting, which will run until 5 July 2002.
UNESCO to Play Special Role in WSIS Preparation, European Conference Says
"The evolution of the information society should be embedded in the concept of sustainable development". This is one of the main findings of the UNESCO European Pre-Conference for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) that ended last Saturday in Mainz, Germany. In their final declaration, the 150 participants from 48 European countries declared that ensuring access to information and communication resources for all, at any time, from everywhere, and under fair conditions is one of the main challenges for the information society.
Training course "ICTs for Information Professionals" Now Online
- "ICTs for Library and Information Professionals" is the title of an ICT training package for library and information personnel in developing countries. The package consisting of CD-ROMs and teacher guides for each of its six modules has been developed by UNESCO Bangkok with funding from the Japanese Funds-in-Trust for Communication and Information. Three of the six modules prepared by Lourdes T. David are now online available at WebWorld .
24-06-2002 UNESCO Organizes Web Training for African Journalists
- African journalists from radio, television and print media were trained in web search during a course provided via video conferencing that was organized by UNESCO and the World Bank last week. The journalists from Benin, Ivory Coast and Senegal were trained to use web resources for facilitating their work. Training sessions alternated with practical work so as to allow the trainees to test their newly acquired skills in the daily journalistic work.
21-06-2002 (Paris) Experts to Assess impact of Open Courseware for Higher Education
In a unprecedented move, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) last year announced that it will put online the substance of nearly all its courses during the coming few years. As the number of academic courses freely available on the Net is rapidly increasing, a UNESCO Forum will look at the impact of open courseware on higher education in developing countries.
20-06-2002 UNESCO’s Network Training Hub in Ukraine Starts New Courses
- One year ago, UNDP and UNESCO launched the “Regional Academy for Advanced Network Administration and Design "(RAANAD) in Kiev, Ukraine, with a view to providing facilities for advanced network training for the region in the framework of UNESCO’s Association of Computer Centres for Exploiting Sustainable Synergy (ACCESS-net). This week started at RANAAD another round of training courses for 60 specialists from the region.
19-06-2002 IPDC Funding for ASBU Modernization Project Produces Positive Results
- Modern equipment to capture and edit TV materials is now operational at the Arab States Broadcasting Union (ASBU) thanks to UNESCO's International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC). "The new digital production equipment that we were able to acquire to replace the obsolete analogue system has greatly facilitated our work" says ASBU's Technical Director Abdelrahim Suleiman.
18-06-2002 Public Service Broadcasting in Central Asia: Experts To Meet in Kyrgyzstan
- National broadcasters funded out of the public purse have historically formed a vital component of the broadcasting sector in most countries and their services are essential for well functioning democratic society. To look at public service broadcasting (PSB) from a Central Asian perspective, UNESCO, the Asia-Pacific Institute For Broadcasting Development (AIBD) and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES) are organizing a Seminar on Legal, Administrative and Financial Aspects of PSB from 1 to 3 July 2002 in Kyrgyzstan's Capital Bishkek.
World Leaders must shape the direction of the ‘Information Society’
The transformation to the Information Society is every bit as profound as the movement from agrarian to industrial societies and just as in the past, such change has led to winners and losers. "Some countries have prospered, while others have fallen behind," Yoshio Utsumi, Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union, told the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York. "If we do not take any action. The gap between the information ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ will continue to grow."
